Process for making oil gas



C. A. PHELPS -PROCESS FOR MAKING OIL GAS May 8, 1928.

Filed March 26. 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet Patentedilway 3, 192.8.

[UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

y CYRUSA. PHELPS, F :HUNTINGTONv PARK, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, OF ONE-THIRD T0 ALBERT J. ANDERSON A ND ONE-THIRD TO MARY Gf BARMORE, BOTH LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

PROCESS FOR MAKING OIL GAS.

Application led March 26, 1924. Serial No. 701,979.

This invention relates to means and methods for producing a reducing gas from fuel; and although a. general object of the invenl.tin is the production of a reducing gas 'from various kinds of fuels, a particular object of the invention is to make hydrocarbon or petroleum fuels available for the reduction of ores. Hcretofore, numerous attempts have'been made to utilize petroleum or petroleum derivatives in the reduction of ores and particularly in the reduction of iron ores; but so far as I am aware such attempts have been uniformly unsuccessful on Aany commercial scale. The general economic object of the invention is to provide ways and means for making such fuels available for ore-reduction; and I accomplish/that general economic object byproviding ways and means for the production of a reducing gas from such fuels; a reducing gas of substantially the same properties as that generated in an iron blast furnace. The invention therefore has to do with processes and apparatus for the production of reducing gases from fuels, and it is more particularly an object to'provide a process and apparatus which is capable of making a reducing gas from hydrocarbon or petroleum fuel. Other objects and corresponding accomplishments of the invention will be -better understood from the following detailed specification wherein I describe preferred procedures and preferred forms of apparatus, reference for this purpose being had to the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a plan, parts being broken away and shown in section,` of one form of apparatus;

Fig. 2 is partly a longitudinal elevation and partly a longitudinal vertical section;

Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a horizontal detail section on line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a plan showing a modified form of apparatus; and

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal elevation and section of the form shown in Fig. 5.

The form of apparatus shown in Figs. 1 to 4 has been designed particularly for using "petroleum or similar fuel; and its construction and operation will be described with that use in view. In these figures I show a suitable brick or other structure that en-l .understood of course that any number of fines may be built into. a single structure; and it will be understood from what I say hereinafter that a single Hue will sutce to carry on the process; but for the type of apparatus that I am now about to -describe a double flue arrangement is very satisfactory.

At the right hand end of the lines in the drawings, the end I` shall for convenience term the intake end of the flue; each flue has in its floor two openings 12 and 13. Below these openings there is what rI will term a furnace structure 14 in which an arch wall 16 separates passage 17 (that communicates with openings 12) from passage 18 (that communicates with openings 13). At a point near the forward end of the fun nace structure a metal plate 19 (a plate of heat withstanding material having good heat conductivity) forms the dividing wall between passages 17 and 18; and this metal plate is preferably placed on a slope as illustrated in Fig. 2, and a liquid fuel burner 2O is arranged to play upon the under face of the 'metal plate. A liquid fuel delivery pipe 21 is placed above the plate. Suitable valves are provided at 22 and 23 for control of the burner and of the delivery of liquid fuel to the upper surface of the plate.

Over the openings 12 and 13 are placed movable damper plates or blocks 25 and 26 for the purpose of closing and opening the openings 12 and 13. These damper plates or blocks may be ymoved by any suitable means as by handles 27 extending outside the structure; and the plates or blocks are made ofsuitable heat resisting materiah with a passage or chamber 36 that c0mmuni- Cates with apipe or pipes 37 for carrying away the generated reducing gases to the place Where they are used or to aI suitable storage.

In operating this form of apparatus liquid fuel, say petroleum, is introduced through burner 20 and is burned in either the air that passes in through opening 38 around the burner or may be partially or Wholly burned in air that is introduced to the burner through pipe 39. Either air or steam may be used for spraying the liquid fuel through the burner; in case air is used the air enters into the combustion of this fuel; and in case steam is used the air is admitted through the opening 38 or in any other suitable way, and the steam may, as hereinafter pointed out, enter into the chemical reactions hereinafter described. The first function of combustion at the burner is to heat the plate 19 and to also heat the brick lchecker-Work in the flue. For this purpose a damper plate 25 is opened, and at the same time the damper plate 32 at the discharge end of the same flue is opened to allow the products of combustion to pass out through stack 35. After the checkerwork has been brought to a proper temperature (a temperature high enough to cause the reactions hereinafter described) then the flame at burner 2O may be somewhat shut down, it only being necessary from that time on to keep up enough flame to heat plate 19 to a temperature suiiicient to crack the oils that are delivered upon the top face of the plate. Damper plate 25 may then be partially closed, damper plate 26 opened, and the oils are delivered in proper quantity through pipe 21 ontothe upper face of plate 19. The gases produced by the cracking operation pass through opening 13 into flue l() and through the flue and into contact With the heated checkerwork, intermingling with the gases of combustion that are being produced at burner 20. The gases produced by cracking of the oil at plate 19 consist principally of CIL. (methane) 'which constitutes about of the gaseous production. There is also some CZH2 (acety lene) and higher hydrocarbons to the extent of about 2 to 3%, and also some CO (carbon monoxide) and some H2 (hydrogen) to about 2 to 3% each; and also some CO2 (carbon dioxide), N2 (nitrogen), and O2 (oxygen), about 3% altogether. These proportions of course depend upon the exact nature of the oil being used, and also the amount of solid matter, carbon, depends upon the nature of the oil. The carbon will usually run from about 10 to 30% weight of the total oil.

The gaseous products of combustion c0ming from burner 2O (that burner being kept in operation during the operations that I products of combustion unites with some of the cracked carbon to also produce CO. The excess oxygen (which may be properly controlled in amount to suit the amount of carbon to be oxidized) also reacts with the cracked carbon to produce CO. These. gases, inter-mingled with the other 'gasesproduced by the cracking operation, are passed out through the opening 31 at the end of the flue, which opening has been opened while opening 30 has been closed.

In the above illustrative procedure, in which burner 20 is kept at least to some extent in operation during the introduction of oil through pipe 21, if steam has been introduced to the burner and thus introduced to the fiue, then this stream, reaching a dissociation temperature, also reacts on the carbon to produce CO and H2.

In another method of procedure the burner20 may be first operated to bring plate 19 and the brick checker-work up to the requisite temperatures; and then opening 12 having been. .closedV and opening 13 opened, the burner may be shut off and oil and steam then introduced through pipe 21, the oil being cracked at plate 19, the products of cracking passing into the iue along with the steam, and the steam reacting with the carbon, under the influence of heat at the checker-Work to produce CO and H2.

In the above described procedures I have as yet considered only one Hue; and the operation in one flue may be more or less discontinuous in its production of reducing gases. When the burner is regulated to put just the right amount of combustion products into the flue to react with the products of cracking, it may not supply enough heat to keep up the temperature at the zone of reaction. Thus more or less continuous operation of a single flue may depend upon the particular hydrocarbon being used. In some cases the exothermic reaction of forming C() from the carbon and oxygen may be suilicient, with the heat of combustion at the burner, to keep the temperature Well up in spite of the andothermic reactions of reducing the CO2 and dissociating the H2O. Of course, it is apparent that two or more iues with separate furnaces may be alternately operated to produce continuously; but I prefer to associate a plurality of fines with a single furnace, and the t-Wo fines may then be alternately operated. However, under certain situations at least, the operation of )reducing reducinov rases ma f be continu- And the burner 20 may be operated continuously to produce enough heat to keep plate 19 and the brick checkers continuously hot; while oil is being continuously yintroduced lo he cracked at the upper surface ofthe plate; and the amount of carbon produced in the cracking operation being sufficient to usc up, so to speak, the products of combustion in the reactions that have been heretofore described. All these ideas involve in essence the operation of burning a part of the fuel to produce heat for the reaction, and cracking the remainder of the oil fuel by use of that heat and causing the reactions between tliecracked products and part of the products of combustion by use of that heat.

In operating two flues from the same furnace the burner 2O is kept in continuous operation and first one damper 25 is opened to heat up the checker-work in that flue. Then that damper 25 is partially closed and the other damper 251opened to throw most of the heat to the other flue to heat it up. At the same time damper 26 of the first mentioned flue is Iopened (oil being continuously introduced through pipe 21 to plate 19) to throw the cracked gases into the first mentioned flue along with the proper proportion of products of combustion that are entering t-hrough the partially closed opening 12. Then when that flue cools down, the dampers are reversed in position so that the second mentioned flue produces reducing gas while the first mentioned'one is heating up again. Thus the production is continuous, with a single furnace, and with burner 20 and the oil feed at 21 operating continuously.

In this last described system of operationit will be noted that only a part of the products of combustion are used for reaction with the volatilized and cracked oils; the other part of the productsof combustion goingto `the other flue to heat up the checker-work.

The amount-of combustion necessary to heat the checker-work is usually more than enough to produce products of combustion in proper volume for reaction with the cracked oils; and so, only part of the products of combustion are used for reaction to make the final gases. The same idea of use of a part of the products of combustion runs through the other procedures previously eX- plained where only one flue is used; because there full combustion is used during ,the heating of the checker-work and the flame is then cut down to produce a smaller amount of products of combustion while the reactions are going on.

If an ash producing fuel is used, doors as at 50 may facilitate ash removal.

These same ideas of operation are carried out in the form of apparatus shown in Figs. 5 and 6; which form, although designed particularly, for using powdered solid fuel, will be seen to be generally applicable to such fuels as petroleum. In fact,as will be readily seen` my process in any of its formsis generally applicable to either kind of fuel; I have merely chosen for purposes of illustration to illustrate one type of a-pparatus as particularly designed and best suited for one kind of fuel and another type of apparatus as particularly designed and best suited for another kind of fuel.

i In Figs. 5 and 6 the structure of the flues and their outlets is substantially the same as in the previous figures; but at the intake ends of the two flues 10 I show a pulverized coal burning apparatus. Here the pulverized coal is introdncedthrough a pipe 40 to a nozzle 41. Surrounding this nozzle is an air pipe 42 that gets its air through air inlet 43; and the'air may be introduced under pressure and controlled by a suitable valve or damper as illustrated at 44. The fuel ma be blown in by air under pressure through pipe 40 and its amount may be con-` trolled by a valve means as illustrated at 45. At 46 I provide a peep hole for observing the conditions of operation. In this form of device the fuel and air may be introduced continuously and simultaneously, enough air being introduced only for partial combustion of the fuel, so that there will be in the products of combustion a sufficient amount of carbon to then react the products of combustion, at the heated checker-work, to produce the body7 of reducing gases. or, the burner may be operated at full combustion for a certain period for the vpurpose of initially heating the checkerwork, and then the amount of combustion air cut down so that imperfect combustion, or practically no combustion at all then ensues. And in this latter case the same general reactionsk take place as before described. And in either of these types of operations the two flues may be operated alternately so as to keep up a continuous production of reducing gases.

Having described a preferred form of my invention, I claim: l

A process for producing oil gas from oil in an apparatus including a checker-brick fixing chamber, including completely burning a portion of the oil with air and with the heat from said combustion heating up the heat retaining checker-brick-to a temperature above the reaction temperature of the products of combustion with volatilized and cracked products of the oil, Volatilizingl and cracking a remaining part of the oil with heat from said combustion, meanwhile maintaining said oil and its cracked and volatilized products completely `separate from the combustion and the products of products of combustion to produce a unicombust-ion, then mixing the volatilized and form combustible gas. cracked products with products of combus- In witness that I claim the foregoing I 10 tion from said burning of the Oil, and then have hereunto subscribed my name this 19 5 carrying the products into contact with the day of March, 1924.

heated checker-brick and thereby fixing the volatilized and cracked products and the CYRUS A. PHELPS. 

